Available now for pre-order is Soul of an Octopus - the sophomore release by O.R.k. It all sounds like noise to me, but if it's your kind of noise you should check it out. I gather that if you are the kind of person who likes this sort of thing, then you might like it.

In honor of President's Day today, here is a drawing of Vice President Dan Quale with an octopus on his head, courtesy of Veeptopus. I had hoped to post the new drawing of Vice President Mike Pence, but that one isn't publicly available yet pending the release of the Veeptopus Book.

According to The Seattle PI, this year's annual Valentine's Day blind date for two giant Pacific octopodes will not take place -- for the second year in a row. Usually it is a romantic event where visotors to the Seattle Aquarium look on while a male and a female octopus are paired up in the hopes that they will mate. Last year the event was cancelled out of fear that the very large and aggressive male might just eat the much smaller female instead of mating with her. This year the cancellation is for a much happier reason: Raspberry, the female selected for this year's event, was found to be already fertilized. So instead of being part of a sixteen-tentacled live sex show, she is going to be released into Puget Sound today at noon Pacific time. The release will be streamed live on the Seattle Aquarium's website if you want to watch.